Concealed radiation heat exchanger



Sept. 13, 1932. c. M. ASHLEY CONCEALED RADIATION HEAT EXCHANGER ITIIIIIIII'IIIIIII.

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3f K ATTORNEY Sept. 13, C1 M. ASHLEY 1,876,547

CONCEALED RADIATION HEAT EXCHANGER Filed April 5, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 13, 1932 l UNITEDv ,STATESl RATENT oFFICIE.l I`v CARLYLE MARTIN ASHLEY, E soU'rn oRAN'oE, NEW JERSEY, AssIGNoR 'ro CARRIER coRPoRAr1oN, oE NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A coRroRA'rIoNoE DELAWARE.

coNcEALED RADIATION HEAT EXCHANGER Application led April 3, 1931. Serial No. 527,567.

ticularly to a concealed wall heater or ericlosed cabinet heater so situated as to induce 5 a circulation of air at a low level and return it to a higher level at a diiferent temperature. Heating devices of the type to which this invention relates have heretofore beencharacterized by a coil or other heating element concealed in a duct, the upper and lower ends of which communicate with a room at two levels. In, suchconstructions the heating element of necessity has been placed above the inlet for the air and the air is therefore 15 drawn into the lower vacant chamber ofthe i ture air, wlth a resulting loss o'f heat either duct to there rise vertically to and through the heating element. This arrangement hasl been found(i in practice to have' many disadvantages among .which capacity limitation plays an important part. Thus the capacityl of a given length and height of enclosure and `for a given surface is limited by the depth of theduct or enclosure as a controlling factor on amount 'of surface that can beefiiciently used. Beyond this limit a capacity increase can only be obtained by providing additional Aheating' surface above the original surface or coil. The superposing of one surface upon another results in increased resistance which '30 reduces the expected gain in heating. The 4 4 height of the stack plays an important part in these vertically superposed surfaces in that a. high'stack will show considerably better percentage gain than a low stack under like conditions, though neither give a capacitv increase even approaching the percentage increase in heating surface. Furthermore, with a heating surface of finned construction placed in a ductabove the air inlet the design must be such that the heating element fits snugly in the duct. otherwise open spaces are formed between the outer surface of the element and the inner wall of the duct to cause-bypass losses. To do this adds 4materially to the expense of installation because a complete enclosing smooth/ metal duct must be employed about the heating element to overcome irregularities of brick, plaster, and other construction material.' Another feature of previous heating devices of the type to which this invention relates is the location of a throttling damper in the upper portion of the duct, at the lower end of which. is loi catedv the heating element. The purpose of this damper is to throttle the amount of air eating capaclty. This device has given rise to'many disadvantages, in. that as it decreases rapidly toward the ceiling thus giving much `less efficiency and less effective heating.` Also,

when the damper is entirely closed due to its location at the top of the. d'uct, this entire duct becomes filled with veryhigh temperathrough the outer',wall where it is wasted or through the inner Wall td the room into which it is desired to decrease the heat emission.

Some ofv the objects of the present invention are to provide?y an improved unit p. for concealed radiation purposes; to provide a heat exchanger so arranged and .associatedwith other parts as to ensure complete and intimate contact of all entering air with such exchanger; to provide a concealed type of heat exchanger wherein operating losses are reducedto a minimum; to provide a heat exchanger for concealed radiation wherein an increase in the capacity of the' unit can be made more eiiciently and more 'economi--v cally than heretofore; to provide a concealed heat exchanger wherein a given volume of air passing therethrough meets with minimum resistance and gives a greatly increased` volume of circulated air as compared to prior p radiation systems; to provide a heat exchanger mounted in la vertical position and in such relation to the air inlet that incoming air traverses such exchanger substantially horizontally; to@ provide a heat exchanger whereby the greatest lheating capacity can be obtained for a given s ace available; to provide a concealed radiation system capable of great flexibility of control without introducing loss factors when changing from one capacity to another; to provide'an improved damper and. by-pass control for concealed heat exchangers; to'provide a grille in such form as to'l properly direct ,theinduced' air 253 55 passing through the unltand thus reduce its g MX stance of a plurality of pipe coils arranged :tewater whileproviding concealment with minimumf which are mounted transversely of the coils air resistance and so associated with a heat exchanger. as to increase the range of modu- -lating control; and to' provide other improvements as 'will hereinafter appear.

ln the accompanying drawings Fig. y1 represents an elevation of a concealed radiator installation embodying one form of the present invention; Fig. 2 represents an elevation on an enlarged scale and partly broken away of the inlet yportion of the installation; Fig.

- 3 represents' a sectional elevation of the complete unit on the same scale as Fig.`2, Fig. 4 represents an elevation partly broken away of a modified form of heat exchanger; and

.Fig 5 represents asection on line 5-5 of -.moval of the cold or cooler air at the floor Fi 4. p

eferring to the drawings one form ofthe present invention consists of a duct 10 communicating at opposite end portions with an .air inlet 11 and an air outlet 12 which are in communication with a room to he heated: -The circulation of air is inward through the,

inlet 11, at the lower'end of the duct 10, upwardly in the duct. 10, and outwardly through the outlet 12 passing in the meantime throughsa heater 13 whereby the temperature of the air is raised during its travel from the inlet 11 to the outlet 12.

The duct 10 can. be formed by any suit- .able bounding walls but in the preferred construction it is definited by a casing 14 which, with the heater 13 and other associated parts, forms a complete unit for installation in the wall of the room where it,

may be plastered or otherwise concealed therein except for the room communicating inlet 11 and outlet 12. In some yinstances and more particularly in the case of external cabinet units the front face of the casing 14 `may be exposed to view but generally for appearance sake the casing 14 is of the construction shown in Fig. 3. This casin 14 is of generally rectangular shape and e ongated horizontally rather than vertically while its depth is relatively shallow; As compared to the height of the room'in which it is located the casing 14 is of dwarf dimension in order to bring the outlet 12 in relatively close proximity to the floor ofthe room while the inlet 11 is substantially at the same level as the floor. The result desired is the reoccupied portion of the room at a` mean liveable temperature with av minimum loss of heat to the `ceiling portiontof-they room.

The heater 13 consists in the present inl preferably in vertical spaced 4relation and `receivinga heating medium, such as steam,

and extend substantially the length thereof in relatively close spaced parallel relation in order to provide a plurality of air passages 20 of restricted width.

by the present'invention the heater 13 is supported at each Vend on brackets 19 extending tothe rear of the casing 14 and resting upon the bottom of the casing 14 so that the assem- 'bled relation is such .that the heater 13 is opposite to and in register with inlet 11 while the series of ins 18 are substantially Vnormal to the plane of the inlet 11. Supportin members 21 can be laced at interva s the bottom of the casing 14 as will be under'- stpod. Preferably the plane of the front edgesof the lins 18 is relatively close to the plane .ofutheinlet 11 while the plane of the rear edges of\the fins 18 is spaced from the rear wall22 of the casing 14de provide a vertically disposed passage 23 communicating at its upper end with the duct 10; at its lower end with a by-pass passage 24 below the heater 13; and at its front with the lin passages 20. Since the top of the heater 13y is practically coincident with the horizontal plane passing through the top of the inlet 11,

is evident that the major portion of the entering air is directed horizontally through the heater 13 and rises into the 'duct 10 from. the 'rear passage 23. f

For varying thetempserature and quantityl of air and controlling i passage through the at 26 tothe rear of the heater and extends throughout the length thereof while its width 'of the screw 28 is a long pitch spiral to give a quick feed motion to the damper so that it -can be shifted readily from one position .to

another.t Preferably one end of the screw 28 extends. through the front of the casing 14 to terminate in a hand knob -30 for manual control thereof. 'When the. damper 25 is in 'te ln order to obtain the new results produced throughout the length o the unit to rest upon 'heater 13, a damper 25 is pivotally mounted the full line position .of Eig. 3 the by-pass passage 24 is entirely .shut oli fromtheduct 10 andall entering air passes through .the

heater 13 to the duct 10r When the damper 25 is in the dotted line position of Fig, 3 all airlfrom the heater 13 is cut off from the duct 10 and vair entering the casing 14 is by-passed through the passages 23 and 24` to the duct 10.

Any intermediate position ofthe damper 25 results in a mixingof cold and heated air to r meet conditions which require tempering of t the heated air.

As the rising air in the duct 10 nears the out1et'12 it preferably meets a baie or deflector 31A which is so shaped and positioned as to direct the flowl smoothly to the outlet. This is accomplished by giving the' baille a convex air engaging face, the curvature of which is such as to give the desired result.

The outlet 12 is preferably concealed by a suitable grille 32 ornamental or other'wise in order to give the desirable finish effect without/restricting the free flow of4 heated air.

The inlet 11 is also provided'with a grille 33 but of a new form so devised as/to coact in certain particulars with the heatgexchanger and d amper assembly to give a result not here,- Atoiore possible in prior devices. Thus in the preferred form the vgrille 33 is made up of a V-plurality of-superposed blades 34 extending. substantially parallel and horizontally across l the inlet 11. Eachv of these blades 34 is curved inwardly and upwardly to lie in the space between theinlet 11 and the plane of the 'front of the heater 13 but are so spaced vertically with respect to each other that the lower edge of each when viewed from above the inlet appears to meet the top edge of the Anext lower blade'and so4 prevents anyone from yseeing through the intervening space. In yother words the arrangement of the blades 34 is such that`the heater .parts are entirely coni cealed from the view of anyone in the room, but allow, freeingress of air. Thus while serving the purpose of concealment the grille 33 gives the maximum free entrance area with .the result of yminimum resistance and maximum radiator capacity. Furthermore a c oactive relation exists between the damper and the grille 33 in, that a closing of the damper 25 decreases theA capacity of the heater to a minimum while the blades'34 act to reduce to a minimum direct radiation to the room and 'also todecrease the circulation of air which might enterthrough the lower pori tion of. inlet 11, pass'over part of heater 13 and leave through upper portion of inlet 11. By the blade construction 'of the grille of the present invention the oblique blades help to trap or pocket the airdirectly .in the heater and so block upward flow vof air when `the damper is closed.

In the form ofthe invention vshown in Figs. 4 and 5 a modified type of heat exchanger is employed, but lfor convenience in following the drawings those parts which have been de- "scribed and are common to Figs. 1 lto 3 in- V clusive have been identified by like reference numerals. InV this form the exchanger is `made up Aof transversely arranged pipes 35, -but'these are ofthe finned-tube type and therefore each is providedwithits own set of tins 36 arranged in closely spaced relation .throughout'the length thereof toform the -flow from its inlet. v height and length of enclosure is not limited by the' depth. of enclosure and any variation desiredpassages through which the air can circulate. A This 'unit is located 1n register with the inlet to the duct so that the entering air passes transversely acrossthe pipes 35 between-the fins and then rises vertically inthe passage 23 to enter the duct-'10 and bedischarged at a different level and different temperature to a room. The inlet in thisin stance, as in the form of the invention already described, is provided with a grille 36, the louvers 37 of which( are respectively of arcuate form and inwardly disposedto partially encircle the top portionv of each finned tube. This results in the formation of a pluv rality of superposed passages 38 which direct different streamsl of air over the individual pi es'.`

. l 7 rom the foregoing it will be seen that a heating devicehas been devised which is characteizedlvby twQ openings into a room which are'spaced by a solid wall forming with other walls an enclosed duct in communication with the twoopenings. This duct terminates at its lower end in the approximate plane of the top of the lower openingbut has communication with the heater which is lo.

cated below the aforesaidplane. This construction gives .a result not heretofore attained by any wall type of heater or socalled base board heater in that the entering air passes horizontally through the heater whereby capacity and air. flow are increased for a given depth `of recess, better efiiciencyobtained, less air friction created, greater unl- -formity of temperature secured, heat loss to surrounding walls reduced dueto greaterair volume at lower temperature. These advan tageous results accrue primarily by reason of the new relation betweenthe heat exchanger and the inletfin that bothvary` as to sizefor changes of capacity withput change in length, height or depth of recess, but always the exchanger remains in registering alinement with the aforesaid inlet. AIn the .construction here shown by way of example an linlet is provided of a size to "coact with an exchanger made up of four conduits, bu t.for conditions requiring less capacity three, two, one or any other number of conduits may be employed, each, however, with its particularsize duct in- Alet an each in assembled condition being subuit jected to the full substantially horizontal air- Thus capacity of a given ofvthese factors gives more efficient heating throughout the entire-ran e. For example i by doubling the surfaceof the heat" exchanger airvbeing circulated and also by delivering air dit at a lower temperature gives a better heating effect.

Similarly, it has been found that by mainthe past it has been necessary to increase either depth, length, or height of recess to obtain a capacity increase with any reasonable degree of eliiciency. With the construe tion described in this invention and utilizing ythe same type of heating surf ce, it is always possible to obtain the greate capacity for a given depth of recess than with the previously accepted type with vertical air flow through the heating surface. Y

While the capacity of a given recess has been greatly increased by the distinctive features of the foregoing device, its eciency and heating economy have been still further improved by means oi the functions performed by the by-pass damper. When a modulation of the heat output of this unit is desired and the by-pass damper is moved part way from its position permitting' no luy-passed air, to its position permitting full by-pass of air, there results two streams of air passing up through the air duct. rl`he volume of air passing through the coil has been reduced with a consequent increase in temperature. ln previous heating devices of this type 'this decreased volume of higher temperature air has been permitted to` enter the room being heated, with the result that it rises rapidly to the ceiling, overheating-that zone. lin this invention this reduced volume 'or higher temperature air is mixed with a substantial quantity of cold air which has entered the stack through the by-pass. This y increases the total volume of airleaving the i duct andv decreases its temperature, resulting.

in a decreased tendency to rise and much improved heating eilect throughout the room.-

Thus, as the damper is brought over to close olf the heating coil, the temperature of the air leaving the -unit is continually reduced without as marked a reduction `in volume, whereas with previous devices the reduction in heating capacity vhas been accompanied by a decrease to substantially zero in the volume of air-together with a marked increase in air tem er'ature.

aving thus described my invention, il claim:

l. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, aheat exchanger located in horizontal alignmentJwith-said inlet and providing a plurality of passages for -air to travel into said duct, and louvres for directy rematar ing incoming air substantiallyhorizntally through the interchanger.

2. heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls `forming aduct having an inlet and an outlet, a 'heat exchanger located-in -horizontal alignment w'ith said inlet and providing a plurality of passages for air to travel into said duct, louvres forrouting air to the interchanger, and means forming a by-pass passage between said inlet and outlet and around said exchanger.

3. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, a heat exchanger located in horizontalv alignment with said inlet and providing a plurality of passages for air to travel into said duct, louvres for routing air to the interchanger, means forming a bypass passage between said inletandoutletand around said exchanger, and .a damper forcontrolling said by-pass passage. y

4:. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forminga duct having an inlet at one end portion and an outlet at the otherendportion, a heat exchanger consisting of a conduit of conducting material and a plurality of ns bonded to said conduit to form a series of air passages transverse of said conduit, and means for mounting said exchanger in said duct whereby the vertically disposed inlets tothe respective fin passages are all horizontally opposite said duct inlet.

5. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a pluralityof walls forming a duct having an inlet at one end portion and an outlet at the other end portion, a heat exchanger consisting of a conduit of conducting material and a plurality of fins bonded to said conduit to form a series of air passages transverse of said conduit, means to mount saidexchanger with the lins spaced from the bottom of said duct to form a by-pass passage and with the vertically disposed inlets to the respective fin passages horizontally opposite said duct vinlet, and a damper for controlling'said bypass passage.

6. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet vertically spaced apart, means forming a by-pass passage between said inlet and outlet and around a a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, a heat exchanger mounted in horiz ontal alignment with said inlet andprovidmg a plurality of passages for air to travel into said duct, a damper for closing the outlet side of exchanger, and a grille in said duct inlet provided with blades arranged one-above another and inwardlyinclined to decrease'extraneous air flow when lo said damper is closed. A

9. A heat exchan er assembly comprising a plurality of walls orming a concealed duct having an exposed inlet and an exposed outlet vertically spaced apart, and a heat eX- changer located in register with said inlet to intercept air passing substantially horizontally through the exchanger to said duct.

10. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, a heat exchanger located in register with said inlet and spaced from the rear wall of said duct and from the bottom thereof, and a damper mounted to swing v toward said exchanger and fit about the rear portion thereof to cut olf all flow of a1r through said exchan er to said duct but allowing air to travel eneath said exchanger into said duct.

11. A heat exchanger assembly comprising a plurality of walls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, a heat exchanger located in register with said inlet and spaced from the rear wall of said duct and from the bottom thereof, and a damper so mounted as to control both air passing through said exchanger and around said exchanger whereby r the air leaving said outlet can be tempered in a predetermined manner. y 12. A heat exchanger assembly comprising 4 a plurality ofiwalls forming a duct having an inlet and an outlet, a heat exchanger in register with said inlet formed of pipes hav ing individual fins thereon, said pipes being arranged in superposed relation, and louvers or blades mounted to respectively direct air from said inlet' across said finned pipes substantially in a horizontal direction.

In testimony whereof I aiix my si ature.

CARLYLE M. AS EY. 

